Elegy For the Poet Charles Moulton
by Peter Everwine
When we were last together,
you read me your latest poem from a sheaf
of hand -scrawled pages, dog-eared
and rolled together by a rubber band.
You didn’t ask me to look at it.
We both knew why: I thought a catfish
had a better grasp of English spelling;
you thought my soul had narrowed
from too many years in a classroom.
Yours was a freedom one might envy,
listening to your drawl of gravelly music,
that wild guffaw when a line pleased you.
I have a photo of you, taken
on some mountain—big grin,
arms held out wide, you’re dancing a jig
buck-naked in your broken boots
and there’s so much joy in your grizzled face
I have to turn away.
You look like you’re getting ready to fly.
“Elegy For The Poet Charles Moulton” by Peter Everwine, from Listening Long And Late. Copyright University of Pittsburg Press 2013.
Most Poetry will post a poem on the theme of joy and celebration, selected by our members, each day through the month of September.